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my m416

Picked this rusty trailer last year off of Craigslist with intentions of selling it after a restoration. I split it with my neighbor, The BOB.

This is what it looked like after pickup. It was covered in surface rust, but everything was still solid.

Finally this weekend The BOB and I started to tackle the rust removal. It actually went real well and was pretty easy with an angle grinder and wire wheel brush. Took only a couple hours to do the exterior, and hit it up with a coat of rustoleum primer.

It will need new tires, as this sat for a while and has some flat spots, and are cracking a bit, but it did make the trip from Macon to Marietta with no issues and it is missing one lug nut.

We will replace the lights and run all new wiring as well.

At this point we might be adding another piece of steel in the bed. The BOB wants to do this, I am not sure we need to. There are only a couple of small pinholes from where the rust was, and somewhere in it's life a hose reel was mounted for fire duty, so there are other numerous drill holes.

The original still has the drain plugs mounted underneath and they still work.

Our next step this coming weekend is to flip it up, pressure wash the bottom and wire brush the surface rust on the bottom, and coat with some more primer. The brakes still work and we will readjust all that wiring as well.

We will be painting this OD green after all the rust work is completed, and will be mounting some jerry can holders on those two front side extensions.

This spent a lot of it's life as a forest service trailer, we saved the data plate and will be putting that on after all painting is completed. Pretty fun and easy project that we hope to make a few bucks on.